of Lake Michigan. Theirs was a farming community, which made LaVonne love and appreciate rural
life. However, what LaVonne liked most was the freedom she had in her community. She was
surrounded by dairy farms and fields for hiking, ponds for skating, Lake Michigan for swimming, and
local "ranches" for horseback riding. Her grandparents, Theodore and Martha Koning, had a 600 acre
dairy farm on the shores of Lake Michigan in nearby Cedar Grove, Wisconsin where she spent many
hours daydreaming of life ahead.
Like her grandparents, LaVonne’s parents were successful at what they did, making many these
activities possible. Their desire was to create a godly and happy life for their daughters.
Arthur and Nora Schreurs
(Photo Courtesy of Phyllis (nee Schreur) Meier
Vonnie’s childhood home, Sheboygan, WI
(Photo Courtesy of Charles Micheals)
LaVonne grew up with one sister, Phyllis. “Phyll” was her best friend, who was just 15 months
older. Together their growing-up years were enjoyable. The carefree life in a rural community was more
important to LaVonne than either her educational instruction or her church instruction, which she
thought was mostly about reciting answers to questions and filling her head with knowledge. The
concept of needing to have a personal relationship with Christ and understanding a need for her own
sins to be forgiven by Jesus did not occur until LaVonne’s college years. What LaVonne (Vonnie) enjoyed
most was making friends, hanging out with them and having a good time!
A habit that Vonnie started at age 12 and continued through her life was that of writing a daily diary.
This habit would serve her well, as she later needed to keep detailed notes of her linguistic work and
preserve these notes for others to use. It also helped shape the book, Measure of Greatness, written
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